Interview with Durrrr

You probably know him from the highest games that can be found online and it seems only a matter of time till we are going to witness him on high stakes poker toying with the likes of Negreanu and Sammy Farha. He switches gears like no others and to many he is the prime example of where they want to be a few years after starting poker.

Name/Age/Location?

Tom Dwan, 20, varies: Texas/Boston/NJ/Canada.

Why is that?

I have a house in Texas/Boston. Grew up in NJ, need to say I live in Canada b/c of legislation.

Ok, so can you tell us your online nickname? How did you come up with it?

Durrrr, I wanted to think of a name that people would get really mad and tilty if they lost to. Durrrr fit =) haha .

How did you get into the poker so fast?

I started playing in march or so of '04 On paradise... just small games
6$ SNGs and stuff and quickly found it could be quite profitable.

Was poker the first game you played online?

Correct

For the people that don't know about the true durrrr. Can you tell us a little about yourself? General interests Goals.

Well I’m interested in a lot of stuff... I’m from NJ- so I’m a Yankees fan, and I am 20, so I am interested in going out every weekend...
For goals:
1 of them is definitely to have made enough money in the next year or two to open up a few businesses and not 'need' to play poker There are a lot of times I play poker b/c its enjoyable but sometimes I don’t feel like playing... however I feel like I 'need' to .

How did you start your bankroll? Did you deposit?

I deposited 50$ on paradise.

What were your expectations of poker in the time you started playing?

I was a senior in high school, and I wanted to have some spare cash for when I went away to college.

How did you get to know about Poker?

Well I started playing with a bunch of my friends in Highschool and on a Tuesday night or something we weren’t doing anything and we found EmpirePoker sit n go’s, which you could play for no money.. so we did a few of those and started liking the idea of playing online…

How did it go at the beginning, for you and your friends?

Pretty soon after that 50$ I deposited I sent one of my good friends 20$ online,
and he is now 8tabling 3/6 and 5/10 so I'd say we have done pretty well
He is adsanman12 on most sites.

Now, did you ever went bankrupt?

I never did actually.

Do you have any estimate of the time it took for you to move up stakes?
Did you ever get stuck in one? Do you recall which? Why were they difficult for you?

Yes, definetly. There were a bunch of levels which were difficult, in which I lost for a while, on paradise only went up to 1/2nl. And it had a 2.5/5$ game that didn’t run too much once I came over to stars and started playing 2/4, 3/6, the games got notably harder, and I had a bit of trouble for a while .

Now, when was your big 'aha' , and made you notice you could make something out of poker? When did you start taking it more seriously?

When I first started playing paradise 1/2nl I was making pretty good money there and realized you could make a lot out of online poker

What can you say about Poker overall. Do you like the game, socially/economically? Yes/no, why?

That’s a really tough question: Socially yes... and economically: no. By socially I mean I think its a good game, and fun to play with others... and its much better in my opinion than many other forms of gambling as far as an effect on people who play it.

What do you think of the whole legal bill going on?
Do you agree/disagree, why?

It’s really dumb in my opinion that it was piggybacked on the port security bill
and its dumb that poker was lumped in with sportsbetting because sportsbetting is a very big problem for American society... and poker if it is a problem, is a much smaller one and
as i said before in my opinion its much better than many other forms of gambling
and people like to gamble...its something they enjoy

What effect do you think it will have in the poker sites not having that many Americans?

Games won’t be quite as good, Because the good American players will still play. But the mediocre/ bad ones will play far less often

Do you think there is something about the American's game that you spot out easily?
How would you describe their type of play

People say there’s a difference but I don’t notice too much of one, Swedes are aggressive is one. It’s just not as big a deal as people think

Let’s get more into poker itself now,
Do you think this is a time where you can make the most money?

I think 1month ago was, although games are still pretty good. But the legislation definitely hurt.

:Do you consider yourself a Cash-game or a Tournament player these days?

Cashgame, I was never really a Tournament player

What skills do you think you have now, that you didn't?
Or which did you focus on improving?

I trust my own ability a lot more now, that’s the biggest one and only worth saying.

What do you consider the most common mistake new poker players tend to do, and what is your opinion about it?

Thinking that b/c they won a hand they played it good, or that b/c they lost a hand they played it bad. In other words being far too results oriented, something many people advice.

What can they do to STOP being like that?
Any tips?

Haha, that is a lot tougher question =].
I often hear, from good players lines like "I can’t fold (insert good hand) there ever" or "I’m too afraid to bluff for (insert large amount of money)" and other statements like that, people make way too many excuses for themselves in poker (I do it too).
And instead of worrying if they played a hand they won right they are just happy that they got the money, again I am too in general. But sometimes I get mad even after winning a hand... or maybe making a big call that was right, because my logic was wrong.

We would like to thank Durrrr for doing this interview and hope to see him around on the poker tables for much longer